Flexible vacuum hose assemblies made primarily of polymeric material are widely used particularly on so-called tank or canister type vacuum cleaners. In many applications, each of such hose assemblies is provided with dual purpose wires which serve as reinforcing wires preventing collapse of the vacuum hose and such wires also serve as electrical conductors whereby each hose assembly may be connected to a vacuum tank at one end and provided with an electric power driven cleaning tool at its opposite end.
It is common practice to make hose assemblies of the character mentioned with hose fittings which are usually molded in position around their vacuum hose and each fitting is often made of a comparatively pliable and flexible polymeric material which has electrical connectors embedded therein and such embedded connectors are fixed to associated dual purpose wires. However, because of the comparative rigidity of the dual purpose wires in each polymeric vacuum hose relative to each flexible hose fitting, electrical connectors fixed to such wires and embedded in an associated hose fitting are usually not precisely aligned and are movable with flexing of the hose fitting. In many applications where it is necessary to mate the embedded connectors with precisely aligned electrical connectors of an associated component being connected to the fitting having the embedded connectors therein, such mating is ordinarily very difficult and may result in damage to the electrical connectors as well as to such fitting and/or associated component requiring scrapping of damaged parts and resulting in unnecessary excessive costs.